Videotaping police legal, and becoming common

This April 4 video showing Walter Scott running from North Charleston, S.C., Patrolman Michael Slager as Slager aims to shoot led to a murder charge and the firing of the officer. It’s legal in Michigan to make video of police from public property if you don’t interfere with officers, Battle Creek authorities said.(Photo: AP)

Recording police activities is legal and can be helpful, Calhoun County law enforcement officials said Friday.

Video recorded on a cell phone is a major piece of evidence in a recent officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in which a driver was shot and killed by police.

Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker said any questions about video recorded by residents is easy.

“Fundamentally, it really is not hard,” Blocker said. “It is a right, a First Amendment right. Can you film? Sure you can, as long as it is not impeding the capability of an officer to do his job.

“So short of sticking it in their face, can you film an event? Absolutely you can.”

Marshall Public Safety Director Jim Schwartz agreed.

“We have had trainings and in-service and they have a right to do that,” Schwartz said. “If they are standing back and not a part of the process and if they capture something it might be something that the defense or the prosecutor might want to see.”

Prosecutor David Gilbert said video can corroborate other evidence in a case.

“It is one more piece of evidence and sometimes it is one more thing we can use in a case,” Gilbert said.

Blocker said in the last three or four years it’s become more common for people to shoot video of police actions.

“When it first happened it was ‘Get that out of my face,’ and officers felt it was an intrusion. But now we have learned that legally it is allowed and that it is just really the way our profession is moving.”

In training provided by the department, officers are told that video has become routine and when an officer tells a resident to stop recording. citizens often ignore that demand. Officers who consider that an affront to their authority contribute to a possible confrontation.

Blocker said his officers are told that more than 90 percent of adults now have cell phones and they should expect more and more people to use them to record police.

“Independent of any other actions,” a training programs explains, “the public can videotape officers as they work.”

He said residents who interfere with the officer or cross into a crime scene or onto private property could face action by police.

“People are filming and we want to remind our officers that this is the reality,” Blocker said. “You need to have the expectations that you are being watched and being filmed. We should not be surprised by it, but be more surprised when it is not on film.”

Schwartz said he trains officers to be professional in all their actions and said he knows of few instances where people have recorded Marshall officers.

Prosecutor Gilbert agreed that recording officers is legal and permissible.

“It can be distracting, but everything else is being videotaped. So as long as they don’t interfere, … I don’t have a problem with it at all.

“But what does bother me is when an officer is rolling around on the ground with somebody and people are videotaping and not helping the officer. I just wish that people would go help the police officer.”

Call Trace Christenson at 966-0685. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson.